Lake County students to compete in STEAM Olympics competition

Monday

TAVARES — Lake County Schools is gearing up for the 2018 STEAM Bowl, an annual event which tests students’ knowledge of science, technology, engineering, the arts and math.

The theme for this year’s competition is “STEAM Olympics,” and will be from 8:30 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday at the Wesley Center, 715 W. Juniata Street in Clermont.

Students in 3rd through 8th grades will work collaboratively in teams to answer higher-order thinking questions and complete an engineering design challenge that will require the use of several 21st-century skills.

Fifth grade will be Monday, 4th on Tuesday, 3rd on Wednesday, 8th on Thursday and 6th and 7th grades will be Friday.

The event is open to the public.

Below is a sample engineering challenge from last year’s “STEM Wars” competition:

Design and build a rescue device with the given materials that will successfully “rescue” the military man in the least amount of time.

The challenge mimicked that of a helicopter rescue and materials included five craft sticks, five straws, ten rubber bands, two foam cups, five feet of string, three cardboard tubes, one military man with magnet attached, and one additional magnet.

And here’s a sample math question from last year:

The Millennium Falcon’s rectangular floor is in need of repair. It measures 12-by-15 yards. Han Solo found free carpet samples on Naboo. How many pieces will he need to cover the floor of the Millennium Falcon if the carpet samples each measure 2-by-3 yards? Draw a diagram to show how they fit.

The correct response is 30 pieces with a matching diagram showing 30 pieces in a 12-by-15 rectangle.

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